Blind payments, for even the most logical reasons and/or purposes, should never be via western union or wire... FOR ANYTHING! Except, maybe, trusted friends and family... which is now yet another scam. But to remain focused, the best scam I've seen, which my dad got, but didn't fall victim to, is the check in the mail scam. My dad received a check in the mail for almost $5K with what appears to be a stolen, but certifiable, financial institution's routing and account info, with instruction to deposit, wait 24 hours for the check to clear, and western union the check amount for taxes, fees, or a combination to be paid enabling the, always substantially large, "winnings" to be released to him. The scam is that, when depositing a check into an account with sufficient funds and in good standing, the funds are immediately available to the victim and initially clears. When the 24 hours has elapsed, with no flag from the bank, and the funds still seeming available, a false sense of security coupled with excitement from the thought of getting lucky, or winning the lottery, overrides rational thought and use of caution. My dad, thankfully, did not western union the money. He contacted the scam artist by the means provided by them in their letter and opted to wait for additional correspondance. He and I asked this joker alot of questions, taking notice of poor english, unintelligent answers, and what seemed to be cheap telecommunication hardware simulating hold and transfer features typical of networked phones. We were never contacted by the scam artist again. The check amount was retracted by his bank's fraud department, almost a month later. We were interviewed by the bank's officials and FBI. This scam was running for a while, with unfortunately obvious success. I crossed paths with this, and variations of this, scam a handful of times now. Best advice... deposit the check with a bank representative (not an ATM or mobile app), express concern and ask them to verify the check, wait 45 days and let the funds sit. Two people I am aware of did not have the funds retracted, most likely due to it being absorbed by the bank's insurance. You could come out on top, but done so ethically and with compliance to the law.
